[1]Check out the NYT today for a report [2]on the marketing plan for “Lexapro” – a fancy antidepressant drug that costs far more than older generics, has no clinical evidence that it works any better, and has benefited from tens of millions of dollars put into doctors’ pockets to encourage its use – especially among kids:

In February, federal prosecutors in Boston announced a civil lawsuit against Forest claiming that the company illegally marketed both Lexapro and a closely related antidepressant, Celexa, for use in children and paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe the medicines to children.

This is yet another reason we need better control (like a preferred drug list) over the drugs used in our NC Medicaid and State Health Plan – not only to control costs, but to make sure that safe, effective and appropriate drugs are being used in programs funded with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.